Cannon Colter is quintessential hero material: chiseled jawline, shredded body—the works. He's also the guy who rescued Yvette Sweeny from kidnappers, only to put an end to her romantic dreams. These days, she's older, smarter, determined to face whatever life throws her way. Even the prospect of sharing a house and business with Cannon.

Cannon knew Yvette wanted him three years ago. But she was young—and some things are worth waiting for. Thrown together by her grandfather's legacy, he realizes how deep Yvette's scars really go, and how much danger lurks in their quiet town. As pent-up desire explodes between them, protecting her becomes the only fight that matters. And he'll break all the rules to do it…

Review:

Oh, Lori Foster, how your books make me swoon and sigh and melt in all the right ways. For years, Foster has been one of my go-to authors when I needed a solid romance to sink into, and her newest book, NO LIMITS, is just as delicious as the rest.

I love the Yvette and Cannon back story. I love that they have a back story. Relationships that evolve from another place always seem to resonate more with me (maybe I'm a sucker for friends turning into more). Foster does a superb job of slowly revealing enough back story between these two, giving me enough details to keep me from being frustrated at being kept in the dark.

Yvette and Cannon are a great balance to each other--they enhance each others' best qualities, and that is what any decent relationship (fictional or not) should do. I loved watching them reconnect and become more.

Foster does an excellent job of setting up the beginning of a promising series here. She introduces a smattering of characters I cannot wait to revisit. Frequently. Definitely not a book to be missed if you like romance. And kissing. And hot guys. And strong females. And ... Just read it.

Charlie Reynolds can outrun, outscore, and
outwit every boy she knows. But when it comes to being a girl, Charlie doesn't
know the first thing about anything. So when she starts working at a chichi
boutique to pay off a speeding ticket, she finds herself in a strange new
world. To cope with the stress of her new reality, Charlie takes to spending
nights chatting with her neighbor Braden through the fence between their yards.
As she grows to depend on their nightly Fence Chats, she realizes she's got a bigger
problem than speeding tickets-she's falling for Braden. She knows what it means
to go for the win, but if spilling her secret means losing him for good, the
stakes just got too high.

Review:

Few
things make me as happy as a new Kasie West book. And you don’t want to know
what I had to do, the hoops I jumped through, and the groveling required to get
this book in my hands. So you must be thinking, “Then Hannah, why haven’t you reviewed it before now?” I would love
to say it’s because I didn’t want my review to get lost amongst the shuffle of
glowing reviews or because I wanted to wait for the buzz to die down before
resurrecting it.

Truth
is I’m having a hard time explaining just why
I loved this book so hard.

It’s
not secret I am a hardcore Kasie West fan. I have been since I read her debut
almost two years ago, but ON THE FENCE is just a special kind of awesome. This
book hit my heart in all the right places.

I
loved Charlie. I loved how adorably clueless she was, how stubborn, how naïve,
how innocent, and how jaded. She’s a total mix of all these things and she is a
fantastic character to move through a book with. While I loved her interactions
with Braden, I especially loved her time with her family. The entire Reynolds
family unit was a total joy to read.

This
book is a fun, feel-good read. It’s the perfect book to read at the tail-end of
summer. I can’t recommend enough that people pick up this awesome gem of a
book.

Aug 19, 2014

I know BEA ended several months ago (*sobs*), but I was playing on iMovie this weekend and decided to make a video to commemorate my time in the city with my friends and family. It was fun re-living those memories.I hung out with a lot of amazing people this year and went to some incredible parties, so don't be shocked to see yourself in here:

Aug 18, 2014

This weekend YADC converged at One More Page in Arlington, Virginia for the launch party of Jessica Spotwood's final book in the Born Wicked trilogy, but we also came together to help spread the word about a topic very near and dear to our hearts: eBook Piracy.eBook piracy is growing at an alarming rate. Authors are losing money, publishers are losing money, and readers are suffering as a result. A lot of piracy is involving eARCs lately. Local author Martina Boone said that pirated copies of her debut COMPULSION were up on 15 sites six months prior to the release this October. YADC had the idea to create a PSA (Public Service Announcement) about eBook piracy. The video is currently in the editing phase, but i had such a blast this weekend with my YADC friends that I needed to talk about it here.

I've met a lot of people who are fascinated by YADC and want to know how they can join something like this. Let me tell you about YADC:YADC (Young Adult DC) was a group started by Andye at Reading Teen in late February of 2013. She had this brilliant idea to start a Facebook group to keep track of local signings and events that bloggers, authors, librarians, book sellers and fans could use in the MD/DC/VA area. Within months it exploded into a group of over 100 people.I don't think any of us realized how many authors and bloggers we have in our little area, but it's amazing. It also means now we always have a familiar face when we go to a signing event. Here are 5 quick things to know about YADC:1. The events are awesome, but the carpool road trips to get there can be awesome-r. Like that time I saw a man napping on the sidewalk in DC. At night. We hope he was napping anyway. 2. When in doubt of a name, just yell, "Steph!" or "Jen!" I promise someone, if not 5 someones, will turn around.3. Laughter is guaranteed. I've yet to wake up the day after a YADC event without a massive headache and/or sore throat from laughing so hard I cried.4. Books and Cupcakes are the power couple of YADC and we all ship that pairing hardcore. Also, never tell Jen that the cupcakes have fallen over unless you're cool with her having a heart attack.5. We have in insanely group of talented people in a relatively small space. From our writers to our bakers to our bookstores, I never cease to be amazed by how much talent and heart is in this area.

After coming back from death as Reboots and being trained by HARC as
soldiers, Wren and Callum have finally escaped north, where they hope to find a
life of freedom. But when they arrive at the Reboot Reservation, it isn't what
they expected. Under the rule of a bloodthirsty leader, Micah, the Reboots are
about to wage an all-out war on the humans. Although Wren's instincts are
telling her to set off into the wilderness on their own and leave the battle
far behind, Callum is unwilling to let his human family be murdered. When Micah
commits the ultimate betrayal, the choice is made for them. But Micah has also
made a fatal mistake . . . he's underestimated Wren and Callum.

The explosive
finale to the Reboot duology is full of riveting action and steamy love scenes
as Wren and Callum become rebels against their own kind.

Review:

Last
year, Amy Tintera’s Reboot was one of
my favorite debuts. What I especially loved about the series was that it was a
duology. For some reason my psyche can handle a duology better than a trilogy
or series, so I jumped at the chance to read this when it popped up on
Edelweiss. I had been waiting a year for REBEL, but I think I lost some of the
magic somewhere along the way.

REBEL
picks up right where Reboot left off.
Hardly any time has passed, for which I was grateful. Wren, Callum, and crew
arrive at the reservation and you immediately get a hinky feeling. Something
definitely wasn’t right. Think when the Walking
Dead crew showed up in Woodbury.

You
knew this Utopia was going to implode. But for some reason, this book plateaued
around 45%. It just stalled and I wound up setting it down and not returning to
it for several weeks. The drive and passion that kept my attention in Reboot was simply gone.

I
finally forced myself to finish and I’m glad I did—the series has a great
conclusion and the action/speed did pick back up. If it weren’t for that
massive lull in the middle, this would be a solid 4-5 star rating. But it’s still a satisfying conclusion to a
great debut.

Jonah and Brighton are about to have the most awkwardly awful night of
their lives. For Jonah, every aspect of his new life reminds him of what he has
had to give up. All he wants is to be left alone. Brighton is popular, pretty,
and always there to help anyone . . . but has no idea of what she wants for
herself. Her seemingly perfect life is marred only by Jonah, the one person who
won't give her the time of day, but also makes her feel, well, something. So
when they are repeatedly thrown together over the course of one night, anything
can—and does—happen. Told in alternating chapters, this poignant, beautiful
novel's energy and tension, amidst the humor and romance,builds to a new beginning of self-acceptance and hope.

Review:

Before
reading this book, I heard all the buzz: Tiffany Schmidt is a great author; I
love BRIGHT BEFORE SUNRISE; Dibs on Jonah … But for some reason, I kept passing
over this book repeatedly.

Stupid,
Hannah. *facepalm*

BRIGHT
BEFORE SUNRISE is a brilliantly written book that I never saw coming. Schmidt
has a flowing, almost poetic way of telling a story that immediately draws the
reader into the heart of the story. She has created vivid, emotionally engaging
characters and set them against a wholly unique plot that any reader would fall
in love with.

While
this may seem like a recipe for insta-love (I mean, two teens, one night? Come on.), I was shocked at how natural the
progression of their relationship was. Yes, the story mostly spans a single
night, but watching Jonah and Brighton go through an entire night together was
almost magical. Is it conventional? No, but darn it if I don’t one single night
just like this where anything and everything feel possible.

BRIGHT
BEFORE SUNRISE is a book that totally caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting
to love it nearly as much as I did, but this book and Tiffany Schmidt have
firmly anchored themselves in my heart. If you’re looking for a sweet, poignant
romance, then look no further.

From the glittering streets of Manhattan to the moonlit rooftops of
Paris, falling in love is easy for hopeless dreamer Isla and introspective
artist Josh. But as they begin their senior year in France, Isla and Josh are
quickly forced to confront the heartbreaking reality that happily-ever-afters
aren’t always forever.

Their romantic
journey is skillfully intertwined with those of beloved couples Anna and
Étienne and Lola and Cricket, whose paths are destined to collide in a sweeping
finale certain to please fans old and new.

Review:

This
is it. It’s here. After years of waiting, countless page refreshes for status
updates on Goodreads, it’s here.

Can
we all take a moment of silent reflection for ISLA AND THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER
and the amazing Stephanie Perkins?

…..

OK,
good. Now let’s talk about this, but first, let’s go back to the start:

Anna and the French Kiss: My first Perkins novel. The
book that stole my heart. The book I forced friends to read long before I was
blogging, pushing it like a dealer on a street corner.

Lola and the Boy Next Door: Hmm. OK. Not quite my kind of
book, but it was still full of brilliant Perkinsisms and fantabulousness.

Isla and the Happily Ever After:Do you hear those angels singing? Do you? DO YOU???? Because
this book is made of perfection.

From
the hilarious start to the happy tears at the end, Perkins has truly outdone
herself. This book was pure, unfiltered magic. Josh and Isla’s romance, which
was years in the making, could not have been done any better.

See?
I’m even pulling out the Logan Echolls’ GIFs here.

The
story of Isla and Josh is epic—spanning years and continents, turmoil, heartbreak,
love, and everything in between. It’s is a breathtaking journey that Perkins
takes us on, and I, for one, loved the ride.

The Kelly Group International (KGI):A super-elite, top secret,
family-run business.Qualifications:High intelligence, rock-hard body, military
background.Mission:Hostage/kidnap victim recovery. Intelligence
gathering. Handling jobs the U.S. government can’t…

Edenis said to be one of the most beautiful women in the
world. Her face has graced countless magazines and her body has sold millions
of dollars of clothing. But her fame and beauty has earned her more than she
ever imagined. Evil is stalking her, determined to extinguish the ethereal
beauty forever.

Swansonor “Swanny” as his teammates call him is always up for
the next mission. He came back from Afghanistan wounded and scarred. Hardly the
kind of man who even belongs in the same room with Eden. And yet there’s
something about the quiet beauty that stirs his blood and makes him dream of
the impossible. Because Beauty loving the beast only happens in fairy tales and
KGI doesn’t deal in fairy tales. Ever.

Review:

This
definitely felt like more of a return to the KGI series I know and love.
Whatever happened with the last book, Maya Banks found her groove again, and
WHEN DAY BREAKS is a great ninth (NINTH!)
addition to this hot military group.

Swanny
has always been that guy that hovers in the background. He’s had a very minimal
presence in the series and I wasn’t sure how I would like him being a romantic
lead, but I was pleasantly surprised by how likeable and enjoyable he was. I
kind of want to go back and re-read the series now so I can pay more attention
to him.

Eden
was a nice female to root for. She wasn’t the traditional model, but Banks did
a great way of showing how models can care about their appearance (yes, I mean
weight here) without starving themselves. Again, I wasn’t 100% sold on a model
heroine, but Banks pulled it off with her usual awesomeness.

These
books have started to feel a bit routine, I’ll admit. I’m hoping something
jarring happens soon in one of the next books to spice things up a little, but
overall I still love this series.

Aug 12, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun!

Top 10 Books I'm Not Sure I Want to Read

The books I've got sitting on my shelves, but keep talking myself out of

1. Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout: I simply don't want this series to end, and if I read this, then it's over. Forever. I don't know that I can walk away with my heart in tact.

2. Rise by Andrea Cremer: I'm not entirely sure why I never read this. I own it. I've read all the others. I have no excuse.

3. Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes: Because we all know I suck at reading book #2 in a series, OK? We all know it!!!! Go ahead and laugh.

In fact? While we're on the book #2 reason:

4. Deception by C.J. Redwine

5. The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa

6. Everbound by Brodi Ashton

7. Prototype by M.D. Waters

8. Asunder by Jodi Meadows

9. Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

10. What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick: I have no specific reasons for this one. At all.

Aug 11, 2014

Welcome to the first stop in the SLEEPING WITH THE BOSS tour! Marissa Clarke (ahem, brownie points if you know who her YA doppleganger is) is a friend of mine, and I am so excited to start this tour off with a trailer so hot it needs it's own warning label.

No, seriously. This trailer is not for the kiddos and is probably NSFW. So ... you've been warned, now enjoy.

Book Synopsis:

For the last five years, bookish Claire Williams has been living for the dying. Now that her stint as caretaker is over, she’s off to see the world. She needs quick cash first, so a temp job at Anderson Auctions seems perfect, especially with the unexpected benefits, including the hottest man she’s ever laid eyes—or hands—on.

Former Marine William Anderson has been burned one time too many. His military training makes him the perfect man to flush out the spy undercutting his family business, but no amount of training can prepare him for the kind of undercover work he’ll have to do when the sexy new temp is implicated. Desire lands them in bed...but duty may cost him his heart.

"Will Anderson can be my boss any day. Marissa Clarke is a master at mixing sexy and mystery." - Jennifer L. Armentrout, # 1 New York Times bestselling author

"Sexy, smart, fun! A fabulous new voice in contemporary romance!"- Sophie Jordan, New York Times bestselling authorExcerpt:

He ran his hands over his closely cropped hair. “Honestly, when I look back on it, I should have seen the signs. I was projecting what I wanted, rather than seeing what was really there. I just kept looking for rainbows.” He took a slow, deep breath. “Even in Afghanistan, I kept chasing those rainbows.”

Claire knew all about chasing rainbows. Rainbows obscured the reality that crept up on you in the middle of the night when you realized your mommy wasn’t ever coming home. Or when the screams of pain started in the next room because the morphine pump wasn’t enough anymore.

They stared at each other until she felt a little dizzy. She knew what he’d been through and how much he’d been hurt. “I’ve been told that sometimes, there’s a pot of gold at the end of those rainbows. I’d sure like to find it.”

This time when he smiled, his dimples showed. “Me, too.”

She couldn’t help but smile back at him from across her small kitchen.

“You up for a little adventure?” he asked. “I’d love to show you something.”

There were lots of things she’d like him to show her. Maybe her pot of gold was closer than expected. “Sure. You’re the boss, Mr. Anderson. Set the agenda."

Author Bio:

Marissa Clarke lives in Texas, where everything is bigger, especially the mosquitoes.

When not writing, she wrangles her rowdy pack of three teens, husband, and a Cairn Terrier named Annabel, who rules the house (and Marissa's heart) with an iron paw.

Marissa Clarke is a pseudonym. Her real name is Mary Lindsey and she also writes young adult novels for Penguin USA. www.marylindsey.com

She loves to connect with readers and can be found at www.marissaclarke.com and on Twitter at @MaryL_MarissaC

After a mysterious Sickness wipes out the rest of the population, the
young survivors assemble into tightly run tribes. Jefferson, the reluctant
leader of the Washington Square tribe, and Donna, the girl he's secretly in
love with, have carved out a precarious existence among the chaos. But when
another tribe member discovers a clue that may hold the cure to the Sickness,
five teens set out on a life-altering road trip to save humankind.

The tribe exchanges
gunfire with enemy gangs, escapes cults and militias, braves the wilds of the
subway and Central Park...and discovers truths they could never have imagined.

Review:

So a world full of young kids, how bad can it
be right? That's what I thought just looking at the title. I was certain I had
this book figured out. That some huge catastrophe took place that somehow
whipped out the "adults". Well, I was sorta right.

The
Young World takes place in New York, minus all the crazy stuff. Well, it's
still crazy just not how you imagined it. It's like watching The Expendables
but miniature style. And I loved it. There is a ton of action and plotting,
creative thinking that only kids could come up with, and a whole world where
you would never think kids would be the masterminds.

There
is a virus that killed smaller children and adults due to a lack of a certain
protein binding hormone, while adolescents were safe until around 18. This gave
them a real look at "life" and how short it now is. How they deal
with this is amazing. You would think that all that they have accomplished
since It Happened, as they call it, would be possible. But if you really think
about it, kids are smart and know more than they let on. How they have to
survive and the strategic planning involved with everything should not be
possible for them. What I love most is how they cope with their lives being
completely turned upside down. It most dystopians the young adults are just
thrown into a completely messed up world and have to just move on. There really
isn't anything that still let's them be kids. No tantrums, no fighting, and no
wanting like kids do. Here, which makes it almost comical, is that they
reference old things. How they keep their "status'" updates on a wall
with drawn pictures of their friends or wiring a generator to play movies on a
drawn up sheet. My favorite is the respawning that happens in Call of Duty if
you die. How they references these things in the middle of a shoot out is
historical but it's how they cope. I mean baby bottle Molotov cocktails, and
Dora the suicide bomber being used as weapons, I couldn't stop laughing
sometimes. Every kid still needs to e a kid even if they are fighting for what
little food is still available.

The
setting here is spot on. And I loved how I knew certain landmarks described
here. It was like "oh I been there" or "oh that's from this
movie" and it's all correct. Not just some thrown together city. I loved
how Harlem is portrayed. And how the people there take this event. And how they
survive and their ingenuity. It's amazing and I can't believe what they
accomplished.

I
loved this book. While it reminded me slightly of Viral Nation, it's different
enough that I can't really compare them. Except for the "cure". This
is an awesome action packed ride with a twist at the end I could not believe.
And it still left me with my mouth hanging open trying to figure out what just
happened and how. On a good way though! I can wait for the next book.

Picturesque Kentucky Lake is the perfect place for a soul in search of safe harbor. A beautiful stranger has arrived—desperate, breathless, and on the run from a dark past closing in on her and the younger siblings she has vowed to protect. Donovan must now draw on every resource at his disposal—if he wants to save a woman and the children who may prove to be his destiny.

Review:

Please know that anytime a KGI novel from Maya Banks hits my shelf - virtual or physical - I will be dropping all things to read it. This includes occasionally acting like I have a case of Montezuma's revenge so I can hide in the bathroom at work and read.

Yes. It's that serious.

Of all the KGI guys, Van has always been the one that's the hardest for me to pin down. I love his heart and his brilliant mind, both of which are frequently in contradiction to the rough-and-tough KGI member that he comes across as. He's an enigma, and I was hoping his book would help me understand him a bit better.

It does ... but it also left me a little confused. While it has all the KGI staples I've come to know and love - hot guy, complex heroine, danger, and thrills with a some sexy times - this one kinda gave me a little whiplash, but I didn't notice until I set the book down at the end and realized that Van and Eve fell in love in 2 days.

2 days.

And it showed, unfortunately. The story felt a bit rushed and the pacing a bit off the whole time. Like Banks was following a formula (albeit a great one). The highlight was definitely the brief Rusty and Sean scenes because Rusty and Sean!!!!!!

I'm hoping this isn't the beginning of the end of my love for this series.

When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas
’n’ Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a
major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have
passed . . . yet she hasn’t aged a day.

Everything else about Kyra’s old life is
different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and
dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a
drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little
green men.

Confused and lost, Kyra isn’t sure how to move
forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler,
Austin’s annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden
undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from the fateful
night of her disappearance, they discover strange phenomena that no one can
explain, and they begin to wonder if Kyra’s father is not as crazy as he seems.
There are others like her who have been taken . . . and returned. Kyra races to
find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had, but what if the life she
wants back is not her own?

Review:

Things
I need in my life:

1. Sleep

2.
Chocolate

3.
Kimberly Derting books

OK,
maybe not in that order, but you get
what I’m saying.

I’ve
been a fan of Derting’s for years, and I still say tell people to this day that
my favorite YA romance ever – my #1
couple – is Jay and Violet from The Body
Finder series. They may have a little competition with Kyra and Tyler now,
though, because I thoroughly loved THE TAKING.

I’m
kind of intrigued with this waking up and missing time idea. I wasn’t sure how
I would enjoy it until reading it through Kyra’s eyes, and Derting does a
fabulous job of walking the reader through Kyra’s confusion while still keep a
witty edge to counter all the heavy emotions.

I do
feel like the end was a bit rushed, and I’m hoping (expecting?) a lot of my
questions will be answered in the next book. I cannot wait for the rest of this series, and
if you aren’t familiar with Derting’s work, jump on board now.

Heiress.
Debutant. Murderer. A new generation of heroines has arrived.

Edinburgh,
Scotland, 1844

Lady Aileana
Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, was destined for a life
carefully planned around Edinburgh’s social events – right up until a faery
killed her mother.

Now it’s the 1844
winter season and Aileana slaughters faeries in secret, in between the endless
round of parties, tea and balls. Armed with modified percussion pistols and
explosives, she sheds her aristocratic facade every night to go hunting. She’s
determined to track down the faery who murdered her mother, and to destroy any
who prey on humans in the city’s many dark alleyways.

But the balance
between high society and her private war is a delicate one, and as the fae
infiltrate the ballroom and Aileana’s father returns home, she has decisions to
make. How much is she willing to lose – and just how far will Aileana go for
revenge?

Review:

I love faeries. Even the dark ones. There
aren't any nice and sparkly ones here. Well except one who still loves to talk
about yanking someone's innards out. This tale of darker faeries was
refreshing. That there is always a bad with the good.

Elizabeth
May created a wonderful world. There is your city with its parks and rivers,
your high class nobles and the royalty. My favorite thing about this is the
steampunk era. I love tinkering with things and to have Lady Aileana be the
tinkerer while trying to maintain her lady like appearance was mildly comical.
I loved what she did with those things and why she did it. Even if for more than
one reason.

After
her mother’s murder, which she is blamed for by the whispers of society,
changed her life. While trying to seek revenge by night and keeping her
etiquette in check during the day, she has my favorite double life. Although,
it doesn't quite work the way she had hoped.

I
loved this book. And I cannot wait for the second to come out. The ending is so
suspenseful that I wish I could just call Elizabeth right now and ask for the
second one. This is a exciting, adventurous tale that kept me on the edge of my
seat more than once.

In Magnolia Branch, Mississippi, the Cafferty and Marsden families are
southern royalty. Neighbors since the Civil War, the families have shared
vacations, holidays, backyard barbecues, and the overwhelming desire to unite
their two clans by marriage. So when a baby boy and girl were born to the
families at the same time, the perfect opportunity seemed to have finally
arrived.

Jemma Cafferty and Ryder Marsden have no
intention of giving in to their parents’ wishes. They’re only seventeen, for
goodness’ sake, not to mention that one little problem: They hate each other!
Jemma can’t stand Ryder’s nauseating golden-boy persona, and Ryder would like
nothing better than to pretend stubborn Jemma doesn’t exist.

But when a violent storm ravages Magnolia
Branch, it unearths Jemma’s and Ryder’s true feelings for each other as the two
discover that the line between love and hate may be thin enough to risk
crossing over.

Review:

You
know that moment when you finish a book and all you want to do is push it all
over your friends because it’s just so
good? That was my experience with MAGNOLIA. This is such a fun, refreshing book that
caught me at the moment where all I wanted was something light and funny to
entertain me, and Kristi Cook provided that and more.

MAGNOLIA
is a twist on Romeo and Juliet. But
instead of families that are mortal enemies with a pair of star-cross’d
teenagers, we get the Cafferty’s and Marsden’s—families that have been united
by friendship for years and have been waiting for the blessed day when they
would have two kids roughly the same age that could marry and formally unite
the families.

Unfortunately
Jemma and Ryder don’t really like each other. At all. That premise would have
been enough to hook me, but Cook lays a subtle backstory that adds a little
extra depth. There is a legit reason why Jemma and Ryder are so at odds, and it
all comes exploding to the surface in the midst of a massive storm where they’re
stranded together.

This
book is definitely what some would call a “palate cleanser”. And it is. But it’s
also just a fantastic anytime book. Anytime you want romance? MAGNOLIA. Anytime
you want entertainment? MAGNOLIA. Anytime you want comedy? MAGNOLIA.